Do you have a favourite pen? What about a notebook that you love to write in? The tools we use are important to our writing process, and not just because of superstition. ​

Sure, it is tempting to think that because you actually finished the story you were writing in a spiral bound black notebook while sitting in a Starbucks facing south-east that you ALWAYS have to use the same tools and sit in the same Starbucks in the same seat. But, superstition aside, the tools we use to write are actually important! In Natalie Goldberg’s iconic book on writing, Writing Down the Bones, she talks about paying attention to the tools we choose for our writing. ​

“First, consider the pen you write with. It should be a fast-writing pen because your thoughts are always much faster than your hand. You don’t want to slow up your hand even more with a slow pen.” - Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Attention to tools is a sentiment I have heard from other writers as well. The tools you use do matter. If you are using a pen that feels clunky, or slow, as Goldberg discusses, or is too light on the page, you might be through off and not enjoy the process. If you have a pen that seems to glide effortless with the rhythm of your hand, you will have a very different connection to your writing.

But, tools do go beyond just pen and paper. The electronic world opens up a plethora of platforms and technology for writers. It can be daunting. So, below I’ve laid out my top through writing tools that I can’t write without from analogue to digital.

1

Pentel R.S.V.P. pens in blueI love these pens! To me, they totally glide across the page, writing fast, neat and easy. I don’t have to press too hard, they don’t leave a smudge between my letters when I’m writing so fast that all my words tend to blend together. They write in tidy, small lines so that I have lots of space on the page. It is a great pen, and blue is a classic, clean colour to read through after. Although, I do have these pens in lots of colours that I use to edit with!

2

Sketchbook I am new to the sketchbook world for writing with, but what I love about a sketchbook over a journal is the thickness of the pages. A downfall is that my Pentel R.S.V.P. pen doesn’t glide quite as nice as it does on thinner paper, but the upside is that I can paste things into my notebook, draw, or just write without the limits of regulated lines!

3

ScrivenerYup, I’m a Scrivener writer! This software is the secret ingredient for me in writing longer pieces. I cannot imagine writing a novel without Scrivener. The organization is 100% needed for my process. With Scrivener, I can easily jump to chapter 17 to work on that section of my novel, then jump back to chapter 3 to reference something so that I remain consistent. I can quickly compile everything together and export it to a epub document when I’m ready to share or do a read through of the entire piece, or I can print off just one section or one chapter when I want to edit on paper. Before Scrivener, I would have to open my Word document and scroll for 200 pages to get to the last place I was working. Now, I can jump around, I can create an outline of my whole novel and see it in one place together, I can share, export, and save resources and research all within one tool.

Those are my top 3 writing tools. What tools can you not live without for your writing practice? ​

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Space is important. It might seem like it shouldn’t be, but let’s be honest, when your space is uninspiring or worse, distracting, how much writing do you actually get done?

I know some writers will say that the goal is to be able to write in any condition, that a writer should just be able to pick up a pen wherever they are and spew out eloquent prose. Although I admire that sentiment, I personally feel that is an unrealistic attitude for many writers. How many other artistic disciplines do you know that would function this same way? Do choreographers just get up in the middle of a cafe and start creating? Do painters carry around an easel and their complete set of paints wherever they go just in case inspiration hits? No. However, that’s not to say that these creators aren’t planning, taking notes, sketching ideas on the go. I believe the challenge with creating a perfect writing space is articulating the things that you need to inspire your creativity while also knowing what things distract you from it. Once you know those two things, the question becomes, how can that writing space move with you? Does it have a permanent home in the form of an office? Or does it have a more mobile quality to it? Maybe you know you need a specific journal to inspire your writing, and you need to tune out background noise. So your journal and good headphones are all you really need.

Let’s start with the easy question… what distracts you from writing? For me, I am distracted by clutter. When my desk is messy, or I’m working in a space that is untidy, I cannot think straight. My mind wanders to the piles of things that are gathered and even though I’m not always compelled to clean it up, I notice that my creativity just doesn’t flow in the same way as when my space is tidy and organized. I am also easily distracted by other people. I need to feel private and alone before any words will come out. If I’m at home, that means being able to shut a door. If I’m in public, that means I need space around me. So, I rarely choose to work in public at cafes or libraries with large communal tables. Instead, I seek out places that have small tables for one or two people. I can feel alone in a crowd when I’m not sharing a table!

What distracts you the most from writing?​Is it the picture of your kids on your desk? Is it the sound of other people around you? Is it clutter, your phone, the internet? What is the biggest culprit and how can you remove it from your writing space? Perhaps the removal becomes part of your writing ritual that will help you clear your mind and enter into your writing practice!

Now, what inspires you to write?Do you have a favourite quote, an image, or a book that makes you feel excited to write and helps you enter into your creative zone? One thing for me that makes me feel inspired creatively is plants. I love having greenery in my writing space. I’m not sure why plants inspire me, they just do! So, I make sure I have a plant on my desk. I also make sure to have images of plants in my journal, or on my worksheets that I’m using (P.S. sign up for free printable worksheets!). This helps me get into my creative headspace.

What inspires your writing practice?

Now that you have the two main ingredients to creating your perfect writing space, where will this space be? Do you have a permanent home for your writing space? Or do you need it to travel around? I always feel it is useful to have a mobile version of your writing space, even if you have a permanent place for it. Maybe you will want to write while travelling, or maybe inspiration will hit you while you are out and about your day. You never know. So, I challenge you to take your list of distractions and your list of inspirations and find a way to take them to different situations and surroundings.

And if you are looking for inspiration, join the Cozy Writer’s Room to get free writing inspired printables every month! ​​

Getting started on a writing project is probably one of the hardest parts of the whole process, but it doesn't have to be! In this post, I will share 5 writing prompt resources that can help you start writing today, even if you don't have a project in mind!

Writing prompts are my favourite! I have used them as a writing warm up, a practice exercise, a tool to develop certain writing skills, and I use them all the time to help me get into a larger project. They are a great way to just start writing, wherever you are mentally, physically or emotionally. And the best part... they are ridiculously easy to find! In fact, you could just use the dictionary and choose a random word to use as a prompt if you want. But, I'm going to share five resources that have put a little more thought behind their prompts for you.

AdHoc Fiction - Although they are taking a break at the moment, AdHoc Fiction posts a new writing prompt every week and challenges you to write a flash fiction piece using the prompt. You can even share your piece if you want on their site!

300 Writing Prompts Journal - If you like having a paper journal to write in and want to keep your random prompt pieces neatly in one place, this is a great tool! You can also get a bigger journal with 500 prompts!

Shauna Philp Blog - Shauna Philp writes a blog about writing but she also has put together 500 writing prompts! This is a goldmine of story starters.

Pinterest - Just type in "writing prompts" on Pinterest and you will find as many as you could ever need. But, in case you don't want to search for them, you can follow my writing prompt board. I keep adding new ones for you!

If writing was on your New Year's resolution list, you can use these amazing prompt resources to help you achieve your goals. So, grab a notebook and start writing!

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Ever had a brilliant idea for a story but when you sit down to write your mind goes blank? Maybe it is a brand new idea and you get stuck on how to begin or maybe you are half way through a project and just get stuck on starting the next section. Either way it can be incredibly frustrating, am I right?!

Sometimes it feels like inside my mind all this magic is happening that somehow all fits together easily and beautifully, but when I sit down at my desk it's like an elusive unicorn always just out of reach. Writing can feel similar to trying to remember or explain a dream. The picture feels really complete in your head, but when you try to put it into words it starts crumbling and makes no sense at all. So here are five ways you can enter into a story if you are stuck on how to begin.

The One Inch Frame Approach - This is a technique from Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird. Lamott explains how she enters a story by thinking about a one inch frame and just writing down what she can see through that tiny perspective. It might be the toe of a character's boot, or the corner of a room, but the point is it is a small area. Imagine you are looking at one element of your story, whether it be a character, a setting, a plot point, whatever. If you hold up a one inch square frame to that part of your story, what can you see through it? It's like being a filmmaker and starting on a super close up. Eventually, you will pull out to reveal a wider picture, but starting that close is a way into the story.

Write out of sequence - I often get stuck on the track of writing sequentially, especially when I'm working on a larger project. I feel like I have to move onto the next chapter in the novel, or the next plot point in the story. But, realistically, you can write in whatever order you want! So, take a look at your story and choose the section you are most called to write in this particular moment. If you have an outline, this should be pretty easy, since you will have all your elements laid out in some format, but if you don't have an outline just take a moment to think through your story and see which part of it feels the most energized to you. Start here, you can go back and fill in the gaps another day.

Use a writing prompt - Every feel like writing prompts are fun when you have nothing to write, but just don't apply when you are working on a project? I hear you, and some prompts out there might be a bit too specific to be a way into your story. However, you can find a lot of amazingly fruitful prompts that can help you get started on writing your story. Do a quick search and see what you find. It doesn't have to be something that you immediately connect with either. Perhaps it will seem completely unrelated. One time during a workshop I got a the prompt "Take a nap." I was in the middle of writing a novel at the time and I just didn't think this really had anything to do with my project. However, I gave it a shot and wrote with that prompt from within the framework of my story. In the end, I kept what I wrote in the novel! It turned out to be a wonderful break in the action, where the character really did need a nap and it ended up furthering the plot. So, you never know. Even if you don't end up including what you write using a prompt, it is a great way to just enter into the writing headspace.

Bullet points - Sometimes it makes more sense to plan out a scene rather than fully write it. Depending on where you are at that day creatively and mentally, it might be an easier way to move ahead on your writing then forcing a fully formed scene. Bullet pointing the various elements that will go into that scene will make writing it later that much easier. And you might just find that using bullet points takes the pressure off and before you realize what is happening, you are actually just writing it out fully and can loose the bullet points!

Try a different format - Similar to the bullet points, sometimes a different format can just shake you out of the funky headspace that is preventing you from getting started. Try writing a list, a letter, a poem, a song, a text message, a recipe, etc. Just working in a different way can be a great way into your characters and story.

These are just five simple tools to break that barrier that can often stand in the way of creativity, but you can find a lot more with a simple google search if you need something different. Or, you can sign up for the Cozy Writers' Room free monthly printables! Sometimes these will be writing prompts, other times they will be worksheets to help you get started with your writing. Easy, free and motivating to use, these printables are a great way to get into your writing. ​​

Do you love listening to podcasts? Do you love being part of a supportive, happy writer's community? The Beautiful Writer's Podcast combines these two things seamlessly to create hour long sessions that feel as if you are sitting down with your best writing friends and having a cup of tea.

I first discovered The Beautiful Writer's Podcast about a year ago when I moved an hour long train ride away from work. I was desperate for podcasts that would keep me engaged from beginning to end of my journey and fill me with creative nourishment. I am so glad I stumbled across this gem. The first season or so, Linda Siversten co-hosts the show with Danielle LaPorte, and after Danielle leaves as permanent co-host, Linda invites a different person on each episode to join her conversation. What is really nice about this podcast is that it isn’t trying to teach you anything, or talk about something very specific in the industry. I have seen so many podcasts with descriptions like, "How to get your book published" or "Tools for Self-Published Authors". Instead of this "how to" approach, this podcast feels like a few writers getting together to jam about life as a writer. I find that I actually learn so much more this way. The knowledge, lessons, techniques, habits, all come out in a natural conversation rather than a structured interview. Maybe this is because there is often two hosts and one guest, so the conversation flows between three voices, but I also think Linda Siversten is a natural interviewer that makes her guests feel welcome and comfortable. Some of my favourite guests have been Dani Shapiro, Tom Hanks, Nell Scovell, and Rosie Walsh, but they are all great!

Looking for a little help getting started on your own writing journey? Join the Cozy Writer’s Room free subscription and get a writing inspired printable every month that will help you focus on writing, move your work in progress forward, and connect to your writing journey. Get started with this Project Lists printable, perfect for laying out some projects you’ve been dreaming off, brainstorming new ideas, and creating a mantra to keep you motivated to write!